By now, we've learned that flexibility is a key ingredient to living on a sailboat. If it's not weather, or boat parts, or boat projects, life still manages to put obstacles and detours in our way.
I would have bet money that we would not have been in BLM for 4th of July fireworks ... for the 2nd year in a row! But, here we are ... it was a fabulous dock party with t-bone steaks cooked on a wood fire grill and an even better fireworks display.
Once again, our intentions were on track, and we went to the dock office on Tuesday, June 29 to settle our bill as planned. Then, not planned, we learned a few hours later that Dan's mom was in the hospital in Florida. There was a lot of uncertainity regarding her health which caused us a lot of uncertainity regarding our plans. In the end, we decided that GA was a lot closer to Florida than any other place we were heading, so Dan rented a car and drove down to be with his mom. Jim and I stayed on the boat, weathering the daily rain storms, getting the food shopping done, and enjoying life on a boat in the hot south with an air conditioner!
Dan returned on Friday, July 2, with good news about his mom's progress. With his mind relieved and back focused on cruising, we decided to leave early Sunday morning and forego the holiday festivities in Brunswick. Until we checked out our electronics and discovered that our chart plotter display was not working. This marvel of electronics is both a crutch and a wonderful tool ... it tracks our progress on the water, allows us to program specific routes, and provides oodles of useful information when it comes to approaching shore and negotiating inlets. Sure, lots of sailors before us cruised happily with their paper charts, but who wants to do that?!
Dan and Jim chillin' in the cabin.
So once again, we were practicing flexiblity and changing plans. Unfortunately, the holiday came at an inconvenient time for us as we were not able to get ahold of Raymarine to send the chartplotter in for repair until Tuesday. This gave us enough time to collect everyone else's opinions and research other GPS options we could use for a backup. Back to West Marine to purchase a small unit that sits at our steering station, allowing us to do everything that our chartplotter did (except for the much smaller screen and we don't have radar to alert us to other boats or weather ... but who needs that, right?! Fortunately, the weather has taken a delightful turn as both the temps and humidity dropped so low that we packed the AC away!
So, it's Tuesday ... the chartplotter got mailed today, the unit was installed, and once again we have settled our bill with the marina! Tomorrow is the day ... July 7 ... we will toss of our dock lines and leave this marina we have called home for the last year.
Disassemble and mail in. Gotta love UPS!
Since the wind is predicted to be out of the north, we are going to sail with it and ride it south to Cumberland Island, which Jim has never seen. After a day at Cumberland, we should have 3 days of south wind, 10 knots, which should make for good sailing off shore on our trek north. Our goal is Georgetown SC which should take 2 days. There we will either continue offshore to Southport, NC or take the ICW up to Southport. We will then stay on the Intercoastal Waterway to avoid Cape Fear all the way to Norfolk, VA (to avoid Cape Hatteras) ... this leg of the trip should take about a week.
The Honda generator ... at home on our aft deck.
Finally, new stories are coming!
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